May's Middletown Book for Discussion: Hamnet (May 31)

 

The MUM Book Discussion group will next meet on Tuesday, May 31.  Our title is Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet: a Novel of the Plague.  Here is a brief summary of this imagined backstory of a well known dramatist:

"A thrilling departure: a short, piercing, deeply moving novel about the death of Shakespeare's 11 year old son Hamnet--a name interchangeable with Hamlet in 15th century Britain--and the years leading up to the production of his great play. England, 1580. A luminous portrait of a marriage, a shattering evocation of a family ravaged by grief and loss, and a hypnotic recreation of the story that inspired one of the greatest masterpieces of all time, Hamnet is mesmerizing, seductive, impossible to put down--a magnificent departure from one of our most gifted novelists."  

Here is where you can find the book:

• There are several copies available through Miami, OhioLINK, and SearchOhio.  I am happy to note that our statewide delivery service should start accepting requests on May 2.
  
• Amazon has the hardcover, Kindle, and audiobook available, and Bookshop.org has links to purchase the title from independent booksellers.

Our group is always finding interesting titles to share, and we look forward to the new things you'll bring to the table.  In addition to discussing Their Eyes Were Watching God, the group also shared these titles for consideration at their April 26 meeting:

• Bright Lights, Big City, Jay McInerney
• Breathe, Joyce Carol Oates
• Hamnet, Maggie O'Farrell
• Upstart Crow (sitcom about Shakespeare)
• The Dead Fathers Club, Matt Haig
• The Venice Sketchbook, Rhys Bowen
• Where You Once Belonged, Kent Haruf
• Maus, Art Speigelman
• Elm Creek Quilts series, Jennifer Chiaverini
• The Women's March, Jennifer Chiaverini
• Faster: How a Jewish Driver, an American Heiress, and a  Legendary Car Beat Hitler's Best, Neal Bascomb
• Every Fifteen Minutes, Lisa Scottoline
• Stiff: the Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, Mary Roach
• Breasts and Eggs, Mieko Kawakami

We will meet at 12 pm on the 31st both in Room 123 in the Library and in Zoom at 

Join Zoom Meeting

Passcode: 171616

‬

Add this event to your Google Calendar!  (which includes the Zoom information)

Please come along to our discussion to share what you've been reading/watching/listening to/experiencing!

If you're looking for something interesting to read, check out our page of past and future reads at http://www.mid.miamioh.edu/library/bookdiscussion.htm

"Shakespeare's birth place. Stratford upon Avon" by elvis_payne is marked with CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

April's Middletown Book for Discussion: Their Eyes Were Watching God (Apr. 26)

 

The MUM Book Discussion group will next meet on Tuesday, April 26.  Our title is Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God.  Here is a brief summary of this tale of a thrice-married woman in Florida:

"This luminous and haunting novel about Janie Crawford, a Southern Black woman in the 1930s, whose journey from a free-spirited girl to a woman of independence and substance has inspired writers and readers for close to 70 years. This poetic, graceful love story, rooted in Black folk traditions and steeped in mythic realism, celebrates boldly and brilliantly African-American culture and heritage. And in a powerful, mesmerizing narrative, it pays quiet tribute to a Black woman who, though constricted by the times, still demanded to be heard."  

Here is where you can find the book:

• There are several copies available through Miami, OhioLINK, and SearchOhio.  However, our statewide delivery service is interrupted during the month of April, so only in-person travel to OhioLINK or SearchOhio libraries would be a possibility to find the book at those locations.
  
• Amazon has the hardcover, Kindle, and audiobook available, and Bookshop.org has links to purchase the title from independent booksellers.

Our group is always finding interesting titles to share, and we look forward to the new things you'll bring to the table.  

We will meet at 12 pm on the 26th both in Room 123 in the Library and in Zoom at 

Join Zoom Meeting

Passcode: 473137

‬

Add this event to your Google Calendar!  (which includes the Zoom information)

Please come along to our discussion to share what you've been reading/watching/listening to/experiencing!

If you're looking for something interesting to read, check out our page of past and future reads at http://www.mid.miamioh.edu/library/bookdiscussion.htm

"Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Sharon Gerald is marked with CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

New books (and more) added to the Gardner-Harvey Library in March!

 

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We add many new items to the collection each month, and we hope you'll check some out.  We've come a long way in growing the collection since this photo was taken in in the early 1970s (and the trees have grown, too)! Take a look at our New Books shelves or skim down our new materials list of items we added to the collection in March! We had a bumper crop this month, adding 324 books, e-books, DVDs, and other items during that time, thanks to your selections and suggestions. The list can be sorted by call number, area of our collection, or by title. There is definitely something here for everyone!

Here are ten titles from the list, to give you an idea of what we've been buying: 

• China and the Uyghurs : a concise introduction / Morris Rossabi
• Can we unlearn racism? : what South Africa teaches us about Whiteness / Jacob R. Boersema
• There is nothing for you here : finding opportunity in the twenty-first century / Fiona Hill
• Who's Black and why? : a hidden chapter from the eighteenth-century invention of race / edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Andrew S. Curran
• The devil never sleeps : learning to live in an age of disasters / Juliette Kayyem
• Persuading with data : a guide to designing, delivering, and defending your data / Miro Kazakoff
• Woman running in the mountains / Yūko Tsushima
• Zoo ethics : the challenges of compassionate conservation / Jenny Gray
• The invisible kingdom : reimagining chronic illness / Meghan O'Rourke
• Russian 'hybrid warfare' and the annexation of Crimea : the modern application of Soviet political warfare / Kent DeBenedictis

This tag will show you all of the prior lists of new materials, in reverse chronological order. We are eager to hear from you about individual items you would like us to buy, or types of items we should be on the look out for, or general subject areas we should build up in the collection.

If you have a suggestion of something to order, please use our "Tell GHL to Buy It" form, email Alan Kelley (kelleya@miamioh.edu), or drop by the library with your request. And pass your general suggestions or comments about the collection to us in those same ways. 

Thanks again for keeping our collection vibrant and your information needs met!

National Park Talk: Denali National Park (Apr. 19)

 

Join us for an overview of Denali National Park and its geology on Tuesday, April 19 at 4:45pm, either in the Gardner-Harvey Library SPACE (Room GRD 014 on the library's lower level) or on Zoom (Join us in Zoom). 

Dr. Tammie L. Gerke, Associate Teaching Professor in Geology at Miami University, will share the geology and other interesting information about the national park. Get your questions answered and participate in a lively discussion on this national treasure.

Add this event to your Google Calendar!

"Denali national park" by Domen Jakus is marked with CC BY-NC 2.0.

GHL "Middmester" Newsletter: Checking in before Midterms

 

OhioLINK disruptions, ILL steps, and a reminder to check out Crater Lake, all this and more in our Spring 2022 Middmester Newsletter. 

National Park Talk: Crater Lake National Park (Mar. 15)

Join us for an overview of Crater Lake National Park and its geology on Tuesday, March 15 at 4:45pm, either in the Gardner-Harvey Library SPACE (Room GRD 014 on the library's lower level) or on Zoom (Join us in Zoom). 

Dr. Tammie L. Gerke, Associate Teaching Professor in Geology at Miami University, will share the geology and other interesting information about the national park. Get your questions answered and participate in a lively discussion on this national treasure.

Add this event to your Google Calendar!

"Crater Lake - Discovery Point" by Odalaigh is marked with CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Tomorrow (Wednesday 3/9 @NOON) Join us and take part in the Human Library

  

The Gardner-Harvey Library is reaching beyond our normal array of books and DVDs and articles and sharing the stories of a collection of people:  a Human Library.  This effort, inspired by a group in Denmark (https://humanlibrary.org), is all about the opportunity to share our stories with one another.  We believe it is powerful to communicate with other people, and in particular to have the opportunity to talk to someone you would not ordinarily have access to.  

We will be holding the Human Library on Wednesday, March 9 from Noon until 1:00pm on Zoom (use this link to join: Join Zoom Meeting). Add this event to your Google Calendar!

Our human books each represent a different group, occupation or identity in our society. They include bereaved parents, non-traditional adult learners, Black/Female/Christian academics, new professors, mothers of boys and step-mothers, those underrepresented in their professions, those who enjoy learning and adventure, and more.  You can also watch a short video of some of our books from last year to get a sense of these individuals. You will have the opportunity to spend time in breakout rooms with the books and hear their stories.  

Maybe there is a question that readers have always wanted to ask someone about their hobby, their religion, their job, or their way of being in the world.  Through conversation we can work against bias, prejudices, and stereotypes and enhance common understanding.  We are eager for you to join us!

Please note that we will follow the linked Rules for Human Library Readers as our code of conduct during the session.

Thank you so much for considering taking part.  Let us know if you have any questions.

John Burke, burkejj@miamioh.edu

Jessie Long, longjh@miamioh.edu

Jennifer Hicks, hicksjl2@miamioh.edu

Temporary disruption to OhioLINK: request items by March 11

 

Request OhioLINK items by March 11

To address ongoing delivery issues, OhioLINK is changing the courier service it uses to transport materials throughout the state. As you plan for library borrowing for the rest of the semester, please be aware there may be disruptions and delays for materials requested through OhioLINK during the transition.

Please note you will not be able to request materials through OhioLINK from March 11 through the end of spring term. OhioLINK is closing requests to avoid creating a backlog during the transition. We recommend you request any items you may need as soon as possible.

Miami University librarians are available to help you identify alternate materials, formats, and other ways to get materials that don’t use the OhioLINK delivery service.

On April 18, OhioLINK will return to working with the company that provided delivery prior to July 2021. However, since we cannot guarantee when OhioLINK will resume accepting requests for materials, we are encouraging Miamians to assume requests will be closed through the end of the spring semester.

Frequently Asked Questions

We will share updates on these issues as soon as we are able. Thank you for your patience as we navigate this transition together.

If you have any questions or concerns, please get in touch with us.

New books (and more) added to the Gardner-Harvey Library in February!

We add many new items to the collection each month, and we hope you'll check some out (even if you can't study under the stairs like they did in the 1970s)! Take a look at our New Books shelves or skim down our new materials list of items we added to the collection in February! We added 149 books, e-books, DVDs, and other items during that time, thanks to your selections and suggestions. The list can be sorted by call number, area of our collection, or by title. There is definitely something here for everyone!

Here are ten titles from the list, to give you an idea of what we've been buying: 

• The loop : how technology is creating a world without choices and how to fight back / Jacob Ward
• The genesis machine : our quest to rewrite life in the age of synthetic biology / Amy Webb and Andrew Hessel
• Origin : a genetic history of the Americas / Jennifer Raff
• Impact of electric cars : understanding propulsion
• Index, a history of the : a bookish adventure from medieval manuscripts to the digital age / Dennis Duncan
• The future of black : Afrofuturism, black comics, and superhero poetry / edited by Len Lawson, Cynthia Manick, and Gary Jackson
• Recitatif : a story / Toni Morrison   with an introduction by Zadie Smith
• The subplot : what China is reading and why it matters / Megan Walsh
• The rage of innocence : how America criminalizes Black youth / Kristin Henning
• Worn : a people's history of clothing / Sofi Thanhauser

This tag will show you all of the prior lists of new materials, in reverse chronological order. We are eager to hear from you about individual items you would like us to buy, or types of items we should be on the look out for, or general subject areas we should build up in the collection.

If you have a suggestion of something to order, please use our "Tell GHL to Buy It" form, email Alan Kelley (kelleya@miamioh.edu), or drop by the library with your request. And pass your general suggestions or comments about the collection to us in those same ways. 

Thanks again for keeping our collection vibrant and your information needs met!

March's Middletown Book for Discussion: Pachinko (March 29)

 

The MUM Book Discussion group will next meet on Tuesday, March 29.  Our title is Min Jin Lee's Pachinko.  Here is a brief summary of this story of a family in exile:

"Pachinko follows one Korean family through the generations, beginning in early 1900s Korea with Sunja, the prized daughter of a poor yet proud family, whose unplanned pregnancy threatens to shame them all. Deserted by her lover, Sunja is saved when a young tubercular minister offers to marry and bring her to Japan. So begins a sweeping saga of an exceptional family in exile from its homeland and caught in the indifferent arc of history. Through desperate struggles and hard-won triumphs, its members are bound together by deep roots as they face enduring questions of faith, family, and identity."  

Here is where you can find the book:

• There are several copies available through Miami, OhioLINK, and SearchOhio.  Due to the upcoming March 11 temporary suspension of requesting through the academic and public library delivery services, this option may not work for you.  If you cannot locate the book at a local library, please reach out to the Gardner-Harvey Library staff (we are in the process of adding additional copies of Pachinko).
  
• Amazon has the hardcover, Kindle, and audiobook available, and Bookshop.org has links to purchase the title from independent booksellers.

Our group is always finding interesting titles to share, and we look forward to the new things you'll bring to the table.  On February 22nd the members of the group discussed The Midnight Library, and also shared a few titles to add to your reading/viewing lists:

• Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel
  
• The Magnolia Palace, Fiona Davis
• Cloud Cuckoo Land, Anthony Doerr
• Two Old Women, Velma Wallis
• Ridgeline, Michael Punke
• Letters Across the Sea, Genevieve Graham
• State of Affairs, Marie Force
• Once Upon a River, Diane Setterfield
• Room, Emma Donoghue

We will meet at 12 pm on the 29th both in Room 123 in the Library and in Zoom at 

Join Zoom Meeting

Passcode: 473137

‬

Add this event to your Google Calendar!  (which includes the Zoom information)

Please come along to our discussion to share what you've been reading/watching/listening to/experiencing!

If you're looking for something interesting to read, check out our page of past and future reads at http://www.mid.miamioh.edu/library/bookdiscussion.htm

"Osaka, Japan" by szeke is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

Visit the Human Library on March 9 - Ask Questions and Hear Unique Stories

 

The Gardner-Harvey Library is reaching beyond our normal array of books and DVDs and articles and sharing the stories of a collection of people:  a Human Library.  This effort, inspired by a group in Denmark (https://humanlibrary.org), is all about the opportunity to share our stories with one another.  We believe it is powerful to communicate with other people, and in particular to have the opportunity to talk to someone you would not ordinarily have access to.  

We will be holding the Human Library on Wednesday, March 9 from Noon until 1:00pm on Zoom (use this link to join: Join Zoom Meeting). Add this event to your Google Calendar!

Our human books each represent a different group, occupation or identity in our society. They include bereaved parents, non-traditional adult learners, Black/Female/Christian academics, new professors, mothers of boys and step-mothers, those underrepresented in their professions, those who enjoy learning and adventure, and more.  You can also watch a short video of some of our books from last year to get a sense of these individuals. You will have the opportunity to spend time in breakout rooms with the books and hear their stories.  

Maybe there is a question that readers have always wanted to ask someone about their hobby, their religion, their job, or their way of being in the world.  Through conversation we can work against bias, prejudices, and stereotypes and enhance common understanding.  We are eager for you to join us!

Please note that we will follow the linked Rules for Human Library Readers as our code of conduct during the session.

Thank you so much for considering taking part.  Let us know if you have any questions.

John Burke, burkejj@miamioh.edu

Jessie Long, longjh@miamioh.edu

Jennifer Hicks, hicksjl2@miamioh.edu

National Park Talk: Introduction to the National Parks (Feb. 15)

 

Join us for an overview of the National Parks and their geology on Tuesday, February 15 at 4:45pm, either in the Gardner-Harvey Library SPACE (Room GRD 014 on the library's lower level) or on Zoom (Join us in Zoom). 

Dr. Tammie L. Gerke, Associate Teaching Professor in Geology at Miami University, will share the geology and other interesting information about each national park, monument, or preserve. Get your questions answered and participate in a lively discussion on these national treasures.

Add this event to your Google Calendar!

"U.S. National Park Service logo" by US Department of State is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0

New books (and more) added to the Gardner-Harvey Library in January!

 

We add many new items to the collection each month, and we hope you'll check some out! Take a look at our New Books shelves or skim down our new materials list of items we added to the collection in January! We added 102 books, e-books, DVDs, and other items during that time, thanks to your selections and suggestions. The list can be sorted by call number, area of our collection, or by title. There is definitely something here for everyone!

Here are ten titles from the list, to give you an idea of what we've been buying: 

• Sex cult nun : breaking away from the Children of God, a wild, radical religious cult / Faith Jones
• A natural history of the future : what the laws of biology tell us about the destiny of the human species / Rob Dunn
• The divide : how fanatical certitude is destroying democracy / Taylor Dotson
• Becoming a diversity leader on campus : navigating identity and situational pressures / Edited by Eugene T. Parker III
• A leadership guide for women in higher education / Marjorie Hass
• The wedding party / Liu Xinwu   translated by Jeremy Tiang"
• Blindness / José Saramago   translated from the Portuguese by Giovanni Pontiero"
• Teaching 21st century skills : using STEM masterspace / R.B. Koul, R. Sheffield, L. McIlvenny
• 'I know who caused COVID-19' : pandemics and xenophobia / Zhou Xun and Sander L. Gilman
• The next supper : the end of restaurants as we knew them, and what comes after / Corey Mintz

This tag will show you all of the prior lists of new materials, in reverse chronological order. We are eager to hear from you about individual items you would like us to buy, or types of items we should be on the look out for, or general subject areas we should build up in the collection.

If you have a suggestion of something to order, please use our "Tell GHL to Buy It" form, email Alan Kelley (kelleya@miamioh.edu), or drop by the library with your request. And pass your general suggestions or comments about the collection to us in those same ways. 

Thanks again for keeping our collection vibrant and your information needs met!